Another ride on the Big Big crazy Train – maintaining the Prog tradition – climbing up high to see the past.
Release Date: 1st March 2024
Label: Inside Out Music
Format: LP / CD / CD+Bluray
The latest chapter in the journey of Big Big Train – one that’s recently been picking up the tag of ‘the journey continues’ – finds them forging fresh pathways (although not straying too far from a familiar route) with their first fully-fledged album since Alberto Bravin stepped into the role of singer. Mind – his songwriting and production contributions mark him in the ‘more than just…’ class.
He’s been eased in gently, both on the live stage and a couple of interim releases. Given the chance to bed in, he’s been welcomed by a supportive fanbase – The Passengers – alongside the slightly less ‘in the spotlight’ new(-ish) recruits in Dim Gray’s keyboarder Oskar Holdorff and violinist Clare Lindley. Dave Foster is back on guitar where the game of rolling subs has seen the guitar spot filled in various times by Dave Gregory and Maria Barbieri, yet with Foster co-writing with the late David Longdon on Made From Sunshine on the Welcome To The Planet album, some sterling live work and an impressive CV, he’s a strong presence.
The stalwarts – the BBT senior management – Rikard Sjoblom, Nick D’Virgilio and BBT figurehead Gregory Spawton remain a resolute backbone; the latter pairing supplementing their main musical contributions with some exquisite twelve-string guitar work – could they be the new Phillips & Rutherford?! It’s that twelve-string sound – or something like it given the strong acoustic guitar presence – that recurs frequently. As a reference point, think Snowfalls. It drives much of Bookmarks (heads up for the album’s first love song – this one a love song to friendship) and the intro to Skates On, and must have offered thrilling moments of creation as the band gathered in the unusual practice of recording together in a room in Trieste. Shades of Nursery Cryme and Christmas Cottage.
Ideally placed on the album, we get advance notice that Light Left In The Day and Oblivion could also well be set to provide the opening ‘in concert’ flurry. Maybe minus the vocal intro as we’re well used to the Crazy Train intro music, but with shadowy figures taking the stage while the mournful brass sighs, or even launching straight into the grand intro around the two minute mark.
The instrumental overture of the former wafts the first of several growling Rickenbacker Spawton basslines to the fore, with spurts of raw keyboard sound allowed to break through. Cut of similar cloth to Apollo, the keyboard fanfares and crescendos, enhanced by the Dave Desmond led brass section, cross swords with textured washes. Oblivion works well in the segue, as opposed to a stand-alone performance it was given to showcase the new music during the last set of dates. The sprightly punch highlights for the first time how Alberto’s voice blends well with that of singing drummer, Nick d’Virgilio – you might even find moments when they’re indistinguishable.
Running over seventeen minutes, Beneath The Masts is the album’s attention grabber. An early and immediate highlight, repeat exposure simply reveals a plethora of treasures in a track that in time, will join the likes of East Coast Racer in the annals of Prog Rock history. Those seventeen minutes fly by, such is the skill with which the piece is constructed. Revisiting the deep-seated trademark BBT tradition for storytelling, Beneath The Masts builds a collection of passages that contrast Autumnal elegance with the uninhibited mid-track instrumental section channelling Tarkus and bursts of Crimsonesque avant-garde-ness – as heavy as Big Big Train has ever been. Verging on controlled chaos and uncharacteristically veering dangerously close to the edges, it’s an exhilarating release in contrast to much of the elegance on the record.
However, it’s the final few minutes that stride proudly into the hallowed selection of Big Big ‘bits’ – those sections and passages that are made for repeat listening. The finale builds and the music swells with the ”The moon is rising, Stars are shining,” line that’s straight out of the Gary Barlow book of songwriting hooks; in the few lines that have us finding a way that leads back home again, Alberto comes into his own and certainly earns his stripes. The goosebump moment of the album.
The sequencing of the Carpe Diem swing of Skates On to follow (“we’re only here for so long” and with its encouragement to “do it now!“) offers a moment to come down. Readers of a certain vintage may recall the Genesis live set of 1982 where Supper’s Ready was followed with Misunderstanding. The recurring theme of making the most of our time, perhaps reflected in the idyllic childhood scene of the cover art, all long hot summers that never seem to end, adds to the subtle nature of much of the music.
Confirmation of the shift into more personal and intimate songwriting comes with another love song, which premiered live on the recent tour. Love Is The Light has the Morse spirit and passion running through it and the abundance of lovely harmonies and vocal arrangements continues in the opening to Miramere that’s classic CSHY/Eagles close-knit excellence. Miramere is buillt on the tale of the 19th-century Spanish castle that inspired another extended piece that showcased the album ahead of release. The ominous middle section combines minor key guitar lines, eerie violin and bursts of mellotron before bounding into a hectic mariachi section.
The song that saw Alberto’s debut with the band, Last Eleven brings us full circle, bringing down the curtain with a lyric that pays tribute to those who didn’t make the first eleven. “If you made the first eleven, you’d be sure to get to heaven,” sang Greg Lake in ELP’s Memoirs Of An Officer And A Gentleman. Recognising the outsiders and outliers -“Those left behind, the oversight, the extras, the make-up-the-number, the footnotes in other stories,” – makes us wonder, from where does this insight come? Light and hope come in the unusual event of a wicket falling in the cricketing analogy! It also completes another circle that began with those tailenders who took strike in the opening few seconds of the album.
“We are very conscious of the traditions that we follow,” says Gregory Spawton in a soundbite that’s going to be quoted in the vast majority of BBT reviews. The heart is worn with pride on the sleeve as they “climb up high to see the past,” while maintaining and extending their own standards in composition and songwriting. Yes, they’re unashamedly Prog, but never afraid to tap into their songwriting nous; even more so on this album where the storytelling is balanced with more personal perspectives.
On this, another significant occasion in the history of Big Big Train, our heroes return with an album that’s going to sit comfortably in an evolving canon whilst offering up some particularly spine-tingling moments (yes, the end of Beneath The Masts has already left its mark) that make the most of the cd scanner. It’s tempting to filch the album title (and yes, we know about Genesis’ Driving The Last Spike) to describe the ‘they’ll never see the likes of us again’ uniqueness of Big Big Train.
Here’s Love Is The Light:
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